While the retail shelf lifetime of Intel’s uncommon Kaby Lake-G processor has just about handed at this level, it seems prefer it has grow to be the reward that retains on giving on the subject of confusion about how help for the mixed Intel/AMD chip will work. First noticed by Tom’s Hardware, AMD’s newest driver Radeon driver installer doesn’t embody help for the chip’s AMD “Vega M” GPU, and consequently there are at the moment no up-to-date drivers accessible for the platform. And whereas Tom’s Hardware did get a cryptic-but-promising response from AMD about future driver help, for the second it’s not clear what’s going to occur or how long-term driver help for the processor will work.
A one-off collaboration between Intel and AMD, Intel’s Kaby Lake-G processor mixed a quad-core Intel Kaby Lake CPU with a discrete AMD Polaris-based GPU, all on a single bundle. With the AMD dGPU masking for Intel’s historically weak built-in graphics, Kaby Lake-G gave Intel and attention-grabbing chip that would ship nice compute efficiency and far stronger graphics efficiency as nicely.
However for the reason that GPU portion of Kaby Lake-G got here from exterior Intel, the chip has all the time existed in an odd place the place it’s by no means been absolutely embraced by both producer. Even as an Intel-sold and Intel-branded product, Kaby Lake-G’s Radeon roots had been by no means actually hidden, and certainly the chip’s GPU drivers have clearly been a by-product of AMD’s customary driver set for the reason that very starting. But this has additionally meant that Intel has been reliant on AMD to supply these drivers, and for causes that aren’t fully public or clear, this hasn’t been dealt with nicely. After a really lengthy break between GPU driver updates, Intel primarily gave up on placing any type of façade on the supply of their GPU drivers, and commenced directing customers to put in AMD’s Radeon drivers, which on the identical time gained official help for the chip.
And that was the tip of that. Or so we thought.
Instead, as noticed by the Tom’s Hardware crew, Kaby Lake-G help has as soon as once more gone lacking from AMD’s drivers. As a outcome, it’s not attainable to put in present drivers for the {hardware} – and even discovering drivers that may be put in is a little bit of an easter egg hunt.
When they reached out to Intel in regards to the matter – and particularly, about up to date drivers for Hades Canyon, Intel’s Kaby Lake-G based mostly NUC – Tom’s Hardware did get a promising, however nonetheless cryptic response from the chipmaker:
We are working to carry again Radeon graphics driver help to Intel NUC 8 Extreme Mini PCs (beforehand codenamed “Hades Canyon”).
And for the second, that is the place issues stand, with no official rationalization as to what’s happening. Driver help for Kaby Lake-G hangs in limbo, as Intel and AMD appear to be unable to kind out accountability for the chip.
Joint initiatives like these are a number of the most troublesome within the business, as having a number of distributors concerned in a single product signifies that there’s a point of cooperation required. Which is simpler mentioned than finished when it includes historic rivals like Intel and AMD. Still, I’d have anticipated that driver help is one thing that may have been hammered out in a contract early on – such that AMD was dedicated to ship and paid for the required 5 years of drivers – somewhat than the present state of affairs of Intel and AMD seemingly dancing across the problem.
In the meantime, right here’s to hoping that Kaby Lake-G’s driver state of affairs will get a happier ending in due time.
